Wow, another week is over. Here is another collection of the best HR articles I have found during the last seven days. It is my fourth article. It means that the next one will be a little anniversary. Also, it will be published in February (I kept my new year resolution to last).

This time, the key topics are:

Show Passion;

Talent Acquisition;

Social Media.

Happy Reading!

These 4 Words in Your Next Interview Will Help You Land the Job

Are you looking for a new job? Do you know what you should say that the recruiter stops looking for other candidates?

You should say just 4 words:

“I love my work.”

Yeah, you should not talk that you are interested in advancing your career. You should not talk about a new opportunity and a new challenge. You should just say that you really love your job.

When candidates articulate that they love the work they do, it signals that they’re motivated intrinsically, by an inner drive to contribute and create.

It indicates that you are not motivated by the compensation package or any other perks you receive. You are internally driven by meaning. It tends to last.

5 Points the Boardroom Wants to See from the Talent Acquisition Function

Human Resources has its seat in the board room. However, it still needs to find ways how to promote most appealing HR topics, so they also become hot topics of the leadership team. They do not want Human Resources to become a hot topic they need to solve urgently. They look for the assurance that HR Managers keep everything under control.

Human Resources usually forgets to implement a strict Governance Policy. It merely says, who can make a decision and how the decision should be documented. It also splits Roles and Responsibilities across different people in an organization. When speaking about hiring new employees, we usually talk about a lot of money spent. A great Governance Framework helps.

Most HR Managers are not great in managing processes. We do not like to design them because we deal with people. They do not follow process maps, they just come with issues, challenges, and great proposals. They do not read the process before they apply. They only come. However, high volume hiring must be well organized. You have to keep track of all job openings, identify issues and manage everyone involved in the procedure. Process Excellence is a must, and make sure that the leadership team knows about it.

Forecasting is a critical success factor. Nobody is interested in the past. Everyone wants to understand what will happen in the following quarter. Should they worry about it? Or should they be calm because nothing challenging will happen?

Why Social Media Has Failed Recruiting

Social Media Hype is over; they look more like fallen stars at the moment. The biggest platforms enjoyed several data privacy scandals, and they have consistent issues with violence and fake news promotion. They had the terrible year 2018.

In 2019, those platforms will sharply focus on data protection and stopping fake and the hate news. Facebook and Twitter need to make sure that they protect customers and their privacy. They will have to fight the trust of customers back (if possible). Maybe, they will not regain the confidence of the audience again, and they will disappear like MySpace and many others.

You find more about the latest development here and here. By the way, it also raises a considerable data privacy challenge for Human Resources. Employees start to ask how we take care of their personal data. Who has access to data? Who makes sure that data are secure and accessible just to those ones granted?

However, what is the status of social media recruiting?

There was always a small issue – they are not a hiring tool, and they have never intended to be a one. Social Media platforms are about the brand. The stronger the brand you have, the more you are loved and followed. It is a simple law of social media. This simple law is valid also for social media hiring; no flood of CV happens if nobody follows you.

Together with social media, Employer Brand was re-born. Again, the stronger the voice on the job market, the more job resumes the business receives. Facebook and Twitter are not tools for hiring new employees; they just amplify sound and bold messages.

Rethinking social recruiting begins with rethinking the basics. It is about building a strong employer brand and high social awareness. It means that you design and implement a solid content strategy. You define a clear vision what topics the business will cover. You just execute the plan, and people will start following you. If you are lucky, they will share your posts with friends to amplify your impact. When changing the job, people will actively look for openings at businesses they know.

This is how social hiring works today. You build a strong presence in online media, and candidates look for you.

Hooray, this is the third edition of my choice of most appealing HR articles published last week. Sure, they are appealing to me, but they usually help me to realize that there are specific components I should think of at work.

As people are returning from their winter vacations, the number of published articles starts to grow steadily. It is great because I have so many pieces to choose from.

This week is about turnover (yup, again), dramatic shifts in talent management, sustainable recruitment costs, and corporate culture. I see them also as priorities for 2019. Also, these are the topics that drive the competitive advantage of Human Resources.

Best HR Management Articles 2019/03

Being unique to employees and candidates, that is what matters in 2019. They help to distinguish our institution from the rest on the market. They help us win the best talents.

So, happy reading! The next selection will come on Saturday.

Do Managers Influence Employee Turnover?

Employee turnover damages and undermines the competitiveness of the business, and it is also highly costly. Surprisingly, most firms do not have a precise calculation of turnover costs. If they would acknowledge the real costs of turnover, they put turnover on a monthly Board Agenda immediately.

Our challenge is that we usually do not understand why employees leave the company. We ask them, or they fill in an online questionnaire, and they typically express two reasons to go. First, they received a better job offer. Second, they leave because of their manager.

There is a problem with the first reason. When you look for the new job actively, you always find a better offer. Always, there is a company that offers you a better compensation package. This firm calculates in all the investments, your skills, and advanced competencies. It does not have to repeat the investment. It can also check your track record. It can take the risk of offering a better pay package.

The second reason to leave is more tricky. Managers have a high impact on teams. Their proactivity or inactivity drives the most important decisions of employees. An employee is always voting in mind if the risk should be taken or not. In some circumstances, the employee determines that the potential career advancement gain is higher than the risk of failure.

The article summarized the results of the study when the researchers went through two managerial influence tactics. They studied both “downward influence” and “inspirational appeal.” Most managers tend to use just one approach, and researchers were observing, which one influence employee turnover more. It is interesting reading, and maybe you will find out you should upgrade skills of your line managers.

The value of Talent Ecosystem

Talent Management is a value-added HR process because it is an essential component in a much broader succession planning procedure. Most HR Organizations consider talent management and acquisition as a strategic one.

In Human Resources, we believe and trust that it protects our best talents against competitors. The well-crafted process continually identifies best high potential employees in the workforce, and it offers a wide variety of developmental activities. However, does this approach still work?

The war for talent has been an HR hot topic for many years. Honestly, most businesses still lose positions in this war. They invest huge money into the development of employees. On the other hand, they do not win a higher employee engagement and lower turnover rates. Employees still leave to find a better place to work. There is something wrong in the matrix.

Human Resources needs to take a holistic approach. By connecting all relevant HR processes, it can design a wholly new system. It needs to bring a new way of thinking and hiring into the organization.

To bring a new recruitment strategy is not sufficient; it needs to be replaced by the broader and well-interconnected umbrella. The HR team has to design, approve and implement a new talent management strategy.

We enjoy the most competitive marketplace in modern Western history, and we have to learn how to act on the employee market, not the employer one.

Newcomers to the market look for different values and motivators. They do not look for life-long employment; they look for part-time contracts and project-based jobs.

They expect full flexibility from employers. However, organizations are not flexible and agile enough, so far.

How to Recruit Top Talent on Budget

A creative recruitment strategy is the best way how the small or start-up organization can compete with the large multinational businesses in the current job market. Small companies and start-ups usually struggle to meet staffing needs. They still miss an appealing brand name, and a tight budget still limits their employer brand investments. Plus, they also carry higher employment risks than the large and mature businesses.

When it comes to recruitment, we still think the old fashioned way. We consider just traditional full-time employment. Today, we cannot rigidly hire only full-time staff. Do you know that there is an attractive new pool of talents? There is an attractive market niche of freelance employees.

A freelance employee does not require an expensive commitment from the company. They do not need much; they usually ask just a small space and timely payment of invoices.

They understand there are certain risks that both parties carry. They can leave sooner than expected; the company can finish the contract sooner than expected.

Also, freelancers are usually a part of the strong informal network. They can recommend anyone from the community when they cannot accept another assignment. They can spread your good brand name if the first one is satisfied.

Also, you can save much time by building a great career section on the company website that covers all the basic and advanced potential questions of job candidates and applicants. You can publish your calendar, and you can leave candidates to schedule job interview meetings.

The five most significant HR learnings from 2018

We are still just a few weeks into a new year. We can consider that we are only at the beginning of new uncovered and hidden challenges. Also, it means we can always reflect on the most important learnings from 2018.

Everyone can choose a different set of personal HR learnings, but I like the following list.

Diversity and fair pay still matter. We talk about diverse teams, fairness and equal opportunities for years, and we have not achieved the results yet. In Great Britain, most companies pay men better than women. We know that because the government made it a regulatory requirement to analyze earning on a yearly basis. So, it is a fact.

It is not just a difference in base pay, which makes it even worse. Organizations usually pay higher bonuses to men. You can argue about higher base pay, but you cannot explain higher bonuses so easy.

Another important reflection is about the flexible working arrangements. They are not considered as a nice extra by employees. They demand them as a standard and non-negotiable item in the employer value proposition.

On the other hand, as the number of freelancers grows, there will be a focus to provide them with the necessary employment law protection.

Does your organization live the Culture you say you want

Corporate culture is a competitive advantage. Your competitors can copy a product, but they cannot replicate your workforce. On the other hand, our values and behavior are a hot topic discussion in Human Resources.

However, it should be a hot topic for the executive leadership team, as well. Culture is comprised of both an organization’s values and the people who bring those values to life.

However, there is a question. Are we fully committed? Do we live the culture we say we have? Do we have an alignment between what we say and what we do?

It is always important to make a step back and analyze our current status. Maybe, we claim that we have a fair pay policy, and we can find out that we have a large number of exceptions. Interestingly, no one can remember why this particular one exception was granted and approved.

In reality, we designed a system that looks perfect on paper, but as a result, we have implemented an unfair pay policy. We do not know about it, but employees feel it.

Culture is not just about values; it is also about employee experience. If employees see and feel a conflict between values and reality, they will never trust HR and the leadership team. We then need to go back to basics and repair what is wrong.

Another week is over, and it is time for another delivery of my favourite HR articles. I try to build my writing habit, and this is my second blog post with the best HR articles of the last week, that I read.

This time, the selection is a bit more diverse than the last one. However, turnover is back again. When talking with friends from other HR departments, I feel that it is a challenge all HR Professionals face at the moment. The job market is tight right now; it is the employee market, not the employer one.

Best HR Management Articles: 02/2019

This week is about the winning culture, learning organizations and HR Analytics. I see these topics as soft powers that define and underline the success of the HR team in the business. They are not visible, but they influence employees and managers in their decisions.

So, happy reading! The next selection will come on Saturday.

What motivates creative people?

Creativity was never seen as essential for the survival of the organization. However, the view of leaders changes significantly. They start to value creative employees because they innovate and deliver the required change to our lives and businesses. They usually come with the break-through idea that becomes an industry standard.

Creativity has a strategic value to the high-performance organization. The only issue is how to motivate creative employees. They are not like the others; they expect a different experience. Some more money does not work for them. They expect their managers to find better ways how to make them engaged and performing.

The carrot and stick approach does not work, as well. Creative employees are too smart; they always find a way how to fool around the rules. They like to play games; they expect you to play better. Creative employees love challenges; they want to be given the issue nobody else can solve. They want to bring a solution that amazes everyone in the room. They want to stand in front of their families and friends being proud of the strategic answer.

You as a manager have to change the approach towards the dedicated team. It would help if you were not a control freak. It would help if you acted as a team member who contributes to uncovering hidden challenges. The one, who can win the war for resources. The one, which celebrates both successes and failures.

The impact of turnover on employee experience

Again, turnover is among my choice of the best articles I found last week. Today, the environment around us is not employer friendly. We act on the employee market, and we have to fight turnover and protect our top performers and critical talents.

We have to deliver the proactive retention strategy to reduce turnover of critical employee populations. We usually ignore the impact on employees who stay. However, they often see how the organization lose the essential know-how. They are left with the work they have to do because there is no one else, who would do it.

It is similar to losing the best friends. There is always a hole left, and it takes time to fill it again. We build strong connections with other employees.

We feel the loss (and we are sad) when somebody close to us leaves the company. The emotional damage of turnover is hazardous because it is invisible. We can observe the immediate impact on productivity. As HR Managers, we have to act. It is the role of Human Resources (and us) to design tools that help leaders and managers fight with high levels of turnover.

Moreover, we should not blame just the market. We should go at least one layer deeper to identify critical internal root causes. Turnover usually does not happen just because the market is employee friendly. There are some flaws in our company.

8 steps to jumpstarting a truth-telling workplace culture

Ummm, each business values honesty and trust among employees and managers. No company puts on its door that it values lies and silence. Moreover, you want to build confidence among employees.

CEOs and leaders are not seen as credible and trustworthy. That is a dangerous trend, and it is an enormous HR challenge. The winning culture cannot coexist with untrust in the organization. When people do not tell the truth, the business cannot expect to improve, because it will miss the feedback from critical stakeholders.

Truth-telling is also clearly and closely linked with the winning corporate culture. Giving the power to the people is essential. It is a simple claim, but managers and leaders have to empower employees. They have to delegate their responsibilities, and they have to change the way how they behave. It is just the first small step.

The winning organization is always a good citizen. It is not just a CSR cliche; it is about following simple steps how to build a business which takes care of the people in the neighborhood.

It is always good to go through the summary of all obstacles that can stop us from the successful development of the learning culture in the business. Sometimes, we push too much, and we recognize just the successes. However, there is no learning without failures.

Unlocking the mystery of HR Data

HR Analytics is one of the least developed HR areas. We do not utilize the data we collect about employees. We do not drive organizational efficiency, future strategy, and we do not measure business success with various HR performance indicators in mind.

Human Resources is about people in the business. However, we have to develop our analytical skills, competencies, and abilities. Leaders do not decide without any back-up data and analytics. Human Resources can lose a significant investment because it cannot build the business case that proves expected returns.

Human Resources collects data about employees, but it does not connect them with other data available in the business. We do not know the cost of turnover. We do not have a clear view, what is the value of the new hire.

Human Resources has to unlock the potential hidden in HR data; it will help to build a winning organization.

Welcome to my first blog post with the choice of HR management articles worth reading. I do not have a highly elaborated plan in place. In reality, it is straightforward and simple. I will post every weekend the selection of up to five articles that I find interesting. So far I suppose that Saturday will be the day for publishing my carefully chosen collection of the best HR blog posts.

Sometimes, it is the article that confirms a simple HR management practice. Quite often, it can happen that I can’t entirely agree with the point of view presented. However, having different opinions always help to shape your one.

In Human Resources, we usually face similar challenges and issues. As we work with the people, we typically want to achieve the same targets. I could call it the holy grail of Human Resources. We want our employees being engaged, loyal and high performing. Unfortunately, employees make this a real challenge occasionally.

Best HRM Articles 01/19: Topics

The Internet HR community is very active, and nobody can read everything, what experts and friends from HR post. That is the reason I see a choice of my favorite articles useful.

This week is mainly about the retention of employees, turnover, corporate culture and compensation practices. Nowadays, recruiting is tricky, but keeping employees in the business is a more significant challenge.

Proven Retention Strategies to Reduce Employee Turnover

There is one big truth in the article. Employee Retention is everyone´s responsibility. Leaders and managers usually blame Human Resources that employee turnover is too high. They expect that HR Managers have magic pills that will cure the company. Managers call HR managers to decrease it. They complain and feel no responsibility.

However, it is not just a task on the HR agenda. It is a high priority goal on everyone´s list. Employees do not leave the company; they abandon their bosses. The role of Human Resources is to make all leaders and line managers aware of this common objective.

The blog post summarizes all the best practices starting with recruiting new employees, onboarding them and managing the entire employee lifecycle in the organization. It rightfully emphasizes that one of the most critical components is the employee experience.

As always, a positive experience brings higher employee engagement (or we can call it a satisfaction). Then, it transforms into decreasing turnover rates. The blog post is nothing overengineered, all the steps are down to earth and applicable to all businesses, starting with those small family ones.

Should you hire a Chief Happiness Officer?

Wellbeing and employee engagement are usually top priority items on the HR Agenda, today. The job market is not in favor of employers. It will not probably change after the next recession. There will always be the war for talents.

HRM Handbook Organization and Key Topics

Each organization needs to invest in the human capital, and it cannot afford to lose critical players. The company and its HR team have to bring creative approaches how to make employees happy, satisfied and loyal.

That is why the role of the Chief Happiness Officer evolved. Most companies do not use the name, but large organizations employ a specialist, who designs and develops the framework for how to make the state-of-the-art workplace environment.

This blog post is not just about happiness at work. It clearly describes the critical components of how to make employees feel happy at work. It is about corporate culture, engagement, well-being and internal communication. It is an excellent post on how to connect all essential components to build a mix that works and delivers.

In the end, you should consider that someone in the business should have the happiness of employees as the responsibility. Not like making employees happy, but just by cultivating the internal environment. You cannot send the internal memo that everyone is happy starting now. You can build the workplace that supports employees in finding ways to become happier.

The Chief Happiness Officer should manage and coordinate wellbeing, employer brand and engagement strategies to make sure the organization receives the best outcome.

First, Clean the Toilets

The next blog post is a great short story about corporate culture. It does not bring any theory; it just demonstrates how business owners care about their companies. They do not leave any trash unattended, because they care. They are the owners. Also, the article demonstrates how difficult is the transfer of the ownership culture to large multinational organizations.

Honestly, the ownership culture is a crucial leadership issue. Making CEOs act like owners because the culture of ownership always begins at the top of the business. If employees see the CEO caring about small details and willing to fix them, they start to pay attention to them, as well.

As a solution, most companies introduced various equity compensation plans or Employee Stock Ownership Plans. Surprisingly, they failed.

Being the owner and feeling the ownership are not the same behaviors. A feeling must come first, but most companies introduced the scheme in the reverse order. They implemented remuneration components, and they expected that the ownership would come.

The only way how to succeed is to convince the CEO, who needs to start acting as the owner of the business.

Competitive Pay Is Not Enough

It is no doubt that your company offers a competitive compensation package. On the other hand, look at job adverts around you. You can see the competitive package in all of them. Every business offers a competitive salary, but no organization explains what it is. Moreover, no firm says that it pays non-competitive wages.

A competitive wage usually means that you pay at the market median. As such, half of the companies offer a better salary than your business. As employees do not leave the company for a smaller package, they come back from job interviews that Company ABC pays better than you are. Sure, because you pay at the market median.

The best way how to pay competitive is paying more than others on the market. However, most organizations cannot bear such costs. Paying the market median is the most efficient approach, at least from the cost management perspective.

The real issue comes when the organization starts to pay at the lower end of the salary bracket. It does not pay a competitive wage; it just pays slightly above the first quartile.

Employees perceive a difference between the compensation strategy and the real wages they receive. Slipping below the median is always dangerous, and Human Resources needs to act swiftly. Otherwise, employees will start leaving the company.